Mepham High stands the test of time

Gloria Chapman was once Gloria Dinger. She once lived on Kenneth Avenue in North Bellmore, after moving into her home in 1933. She once climbed an apple tree when playing with friends near Camp Avenue, which had only four houses and a farm when she was in elementary school.

But in a few short years, 21 acres of land were bought along Camp Avenue. Construction of homes across the street from the farm soon followed, and Chapman’s beloved apple tree was cut down in the process.

Chapman said none of this disappointed her, though. The changes to the area were all related construction of Mepham High School, from which she and her friends earned their diplomas while making happy memories to last a lifetime.

“It was part of our childhood,” she said of Mepham’s construction. “We had no idea about high school or what was going to happen to us there.”

After 75 years, the Mepham High School that Chapman and others in the North Bellmore community watched workers build has not changed drastically, to the delight of alumni and school officials.

Jerry Worthing, the Mepham alumni association webmaster, was a member of the class of 1941 – the first group of students to have had four years of schooling at the building. He said the school opened in September 1937 after the boards of education of the Bellmore, Merrick, North Bellmore and North Bellmore school districts voted to create another district –– the Bellmore-Merrick Central School District –– in 1934. An article in the 1937 Buccaneer yearbook said the school was named for Wellington C. Mepham when it opened because many local elementary school students and others suggested honoring the Long Island superintendent who supported creation of the new district.

Bellmore-Merrick students first began taking high school classes in a wooden, six-room schoolhouse on Bedford Avenue in Bellmore, Worthing said. Meanwhile, construction of the new building started on the former farmland, which was purchased for $49,800.